Kino MacGregor@kinoyoga

#yogatutorial How to deepen your backbend in Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana. Before you simply assume that this is too advanced for you, click the link in my bio for a full ten minute video building up from modifications all the way to this advanced expression on my YouTube channel.

_
In your yoga practice it only matters that you try. It’s not a completion for the deepest backbend. That being said, there is no reason to avoid going deeper if it’s safe and accessible for you. But be careful not to judge your spiritual progress by the shapes you can or can’t make with your body.
_
Key tips/pointers to remember:
1. Square the hips and let the front of the iliac crest stay grounded even if it elevates a little.
2. Lift and create space between each of the joints of your spine before you try to bend backwards.
3. Use your breath. Enter on the exhalation and release from a deep space of trust and surrender
4. Always Mula Bandha—remember to keep the pelvic floor engaged.
5. Externally rotate the shoulder and draw be elbows towards eachother. Avoid winging the elbows out.
6. Remain calm. Don’t judge your body. Love yourself, forgive yourself and cherish every moment on the mat.
_
Comment below with your requests for more tutorials!!
_#practiceyogachangeyourworld#onebreathatatime

96 9,611

Who’s ready or a new #yogachallenge ? Next month, I will be co-hosting the #OneMillionYogisChallenge with @yogisoli ‪beginning June 1st.‬ This is a 12-day challenge that’s been created to coincide with Ahmed’s new course, Mindful Movement – Be Comfortable in Your Body on @omstarsofficial This course is for EVERYONE — you don’t need to be really strong or flexible, just willing and able. This course is more about your internal experience and is designed to help you use mindful alignment to create a sustainable practice that accommodates your physical, mental and emotional state.
—
We’ve partnered up with another amazing charity this month, @yogagivesback who provides funding and support to impoverished mothers, youths and children in India. Plus, OMstars and our incredible sponsors Liquido, Liforme, and Fourth & Heart, will be donating $1 for every participant to the Yoga Gives Back Charity, up to a total of $16,000. We also have awesome prizes for you to win from each of our sponsors as well as from Sol & Selene and Batikarma. Click the link below to join the challenge and tag your friends in the comments below! (PS — it’s FREE!)
—
Here’s how to join:
1. Click the link in my bio to sign up now
_
2. Follow our sponsors and hosts @kinoyoga@yogisoli@omstarsofficial@liquidoactive@liforme@solandselene@batikarma and @fourthandheart
_
3. Repost this challenge graphic and help spread the word.
_
4. Tag three friends to join you in this challenge!!
_
5. Practice with us every day for 12 days and share your journey here on IG and be sure to use our challenge hashtag #OneMillionYogisChallenge plus tag all our hosts and sponsors daily.
_
6. Like and comment on each other’s posts to stay active and present in our community of yogis here on IG
_
Challenge starts June 1st!!!
https://omstars.com/#/onemillionyogischallenge

64 7,490

Being comfortable in your body, under your skin is no joke. It’s taken me my entire life to feel at home here in this body. I spent years hating my body, thinking my legs were too thick and short to be considered beautiful. I learned fat-phobia and age-phobia from a culture obsessed with idolizing youth and thinness. When I think about the amount of decisions I took based on fear of being fat it breaks my heart—all the food I didn’t eat, all the clothes I didn’t dare wear, all the love that I cut myself off from. It breaks my heart when people say they won’t wear shorts BC they hate their legs and even more so when people speak hate over their bodies and hide their shape. That’s living in fear and it is no way to live.
_
When you look in the mirror you have to love what you see. If you don’t, then practice it. Stand in the mirror and, instead of pinching your thighs like I spent years doing, celebrate your beauty. When you see your image in the mirror send yourself love, validate how hard you work, and recognize your goodness because you ARE good and you do work SO hard and you ARE worthy love.
_
The more I get comfortable in who I am the less I feel the need to fit in anyone’s box. In fact, I’d like to throw out all the boxes and just allow everyone to be free to be themselves in all their glory and radiance. In order to embrace life fully you have to embrace every cell of your being.
_
You may look at me and see beauty. I am flawed, imperfect human being stumbling down the path of life. I have cellulite and wrinkles and grey hair. Some people consider me old and ugly. There are moments when I am granted deep wisdom and powerful insight. There are also moments when I am blinded by own emotions and get lost in a sea of my own distress. Some people see me as a teacher and others see me as a sell-out. But let me tell you, what you see in me is a reflection of yourself. If you see beauty, strength or grace in me it’s because you have that in yourself. The light in me is the light in you.
_
The New Palm Dreams print that I designed just launched!! #sponsored by @omstarsofficial@liquidoactive

317 20,470

When every door feels locked and every street is a dead end, where do you go? When you’re stuck with no viable path forward and all options look terrible, what do you do?
_
Quit. Give up. Concede. Lose. Surrender.
_
Surrender is a key concept in yoga philosophy and is usually presented in a paradigm where the yogi is asked to surrender to God. Surrender and devotion to God are presented in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra as Isvara Pranidhana. The ultimate expression of total surrender to God is the state of Vairagya, non-attachment to the fruits of one’s labor. The more invested the yogi is in the outcome, the greater the need to surrender. Take the idea of a yoga pose—the more attached you are to achieving a particular outcome in a particular time the more likely it is that you will sacrifice good technique to get the pose sooner. Chapter seven of the Bhagavad Gita asks Arjuna to surrender all works to me (God). Krishna says “Fix your mind on me. Let your understanding be absorbed in me. Henceforth doubtless you shall reside in me. Surrendering all works to me. Knowing me Krishna to be of all. With a concentrated mind fix your mind on me. Fixing your mind on me you will overcome all obstacles due to my divine grace.”
_
Quitting, on the other hand, happens when you think you can control the outcome with your actions alone.
_
When the weight of the world is on your shoulders ad you think it’s on you, fear sets in. There is almost a knowingness in your heart that no matter how hard you try you’ll never be able to control it all. Without faith, fear takes over and you quit. If you’re scared of the repercussions or you’re scared of losing something valuable to you, then quitting seems like a good option. And truly sometimes it is. Perhaps the difference between the attitude of quitting and surrender is really about perspective. Faith in God’s plan is the key distinction between the two states of mind.
_
This week’s Yogi Assignment is Surrender to God. Read the full blog here:
https://www.kinoyoga.com/yogi-assignment-surrender-to-god/
_
Photo @hayovg

111 15,284

L-sit forever. In the yoga practice it doesn’t matter how well you do the asana, it only matters that you try. It’s good to have at least one or two asanas that really challenge you when you practice because it’s at our limits that we really grow and transform.
_
Strength is always a project for me. When I get down about life I fall into a pattern of doubting everything. But then in a lift up like this it’s almost as though there’s a voice that says, Listen up, girl, you are so much stronger than you think, you are so much better than you give yourself credit for, now pick it up again.
_
Whatever you practice with full faith will one day come into being. If you fail, fail with complete faith in your heart that will eventually succeed. Come into agreement with all that is good and lift yourself and your whole world up.
_
And if you come to class I can nearly promise that I’ll ask you to do a few l-sits every time.
_#practiceyogachangeyourworld#onebreathatatime
Photo @hayovg

138 15,054

You have a light that needs to expand and shine. Take time to heal yourself and forgive yourself. You aren’t going to get it all right and not everyone is going to understand you—that’s ok. Don’t take it personally when people see the worst in you. It’s most often about them and not about you.
_
Check your intentions and be deeply aware of the impact that your actions have on the world. Be willing to take in tough love and hear the softly stated constructive criticism that is meant to help you grow. When someone’s lived experience of pain and suffering feels scary, disruptive or threatening that’s when you know you need to put in the work and listen up.
_
Grow, but don’t wallow. Think things through but don’t meditate on the mess. Be honest and brave but not self-denigrating or narcissistic. Admit your mistakes but don’t allow people to torture you about the past.
_
Be humble enough to accept that you don’t have the picture or any situation. You can’t really assume to know everything about anyone, not even those closest to you. Even if you think you’ve done nothing wrong, understand that we all have blind spots and you might not be seeing everything clearly.
_
But more than anything else, embrace love. Love your friends, colleagues, even the haters and your enemies, love them too. Every action taken in hate has its own price. Act in love or don’t act at all.
_
But what is love really? Is it just a world to throw around under the veneer of good vibes? For me it’s much more. Love is eternal, timeless, truthful, forgiving, fierce and relentless. Love is a spring of in a hopeless place, a ray of light breaking through the storm. Love heals all wounds and builds every bridge. God is love.
_#practiceyogachangeyourworld#onebreathatatime

147 15,807

When you tell someone that your feelings are hurt and they disagree or disregard your lived experience, it makes the hurt bigger. You may decide to disengage and walk away. Just by continuing to engage with an abusive person you give them fuel and tie yourself deeper into their web of madness.
_
It doesn’t mean it’s easy to prune your emotional garden. While sometimes walking away from a destructive situation is the right thing to do, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. Forgiving and forgetting are two different things.
_
Judgement and boundaries are hard to navigate. But maybe it’s just like different types of cake. If you like chocolate cake and I like vanilla cake we can co-exist as long as I don’t force feed you vanilla and you don’t force feed me chocolate and we both say it’s ok for chocolate, vanilla and all the other flavors to exist. And every now and again maybe we sample some new flavors just to be sure we aren’t closing ourselves off. Once in awhile I try key lime again just to be sure that I don’t like it. And it’s true, I’ve never once tried a key lime dessert that I like (but I love lemonade). .
_
Now I’m lost talking about deserts lol. What I’m trying to say is that it’s ok if you don’t want to be around everyone all the time. Your time on Earth is too precious to waste it eating flavors you don’t like just BC you think you should or BC you’re afraid people will judge you if you don’t conform and eat the same flavor as they do.
_
There is so much I’m still learning, so many stumbles I’ve yet to pick myself back up from. I process my emotions and experiences slowly, almost in the exact opposite manner with which I dive in and throw myself, heart first, into something or someone if I feel it. There have been so many times that I’ve given my trust freely only to have my heart broken. But it’s hard for me to not keep giving with an open heart. I guess my heart is going to have to get so strong it take getting broken again and again.
_
No matter where I am or how cold it is, I’m always down for a quick handstand in the street. Fleece leggings by @umstuff are the only reason I’m not freezing. #practiceyogachangeyourworld

230 17,496

Auf Wiedersehen Berlin. Hallo Amsterdam How many languages do you speak? I only speak English fluently. Otherwise enough Spanish to barely communicate and enough Danish for the Danes to laugh at me for my bad pronunciation. Maybe add in a few words in Sanskrit from my yoga studies, but I couldn’t speak it as a language if my life depended on it.
_
I’ll be teaching this weekend @delight.yoga and there are still just a few spots left. Come practice
_#practiceyogachangeyourworld#onebreathatatime

222 13,023

When I first pitched the idea of a yoga TV show everyone told me there wouldn’t be enough drama to make it watchable! I mean, are you kidding?
_
No, but really, I am so grateful to launch my episode of our Day in the Life of Yogi series on @omstarsofficial Did you watch? What did you think?
_
I’ve always thought that what would make the yogi life inspirational to see is not the perfection, but the struggle. When we see real life yogis face the ups and downs of life and sometimes stumble and fall, but always grow and evolve along the way it helps keep the practice real. Just like asana, it’s not about getting right on the first try, it’s about what you learn along the way.
_#livetheyogilife

219 12,879

I’m having a love affair in Berlin. His name is Mati and he has big brown eyes and long reddish brown hair and he’s a rescue I’m just glad that his Mom @jivamuktiyogaberlin doesn’t mind that he gives me kisses. Seriously one day I’m going to get a dog and it will never leave my side. Until then I will fall in love with any furry create that will let me.

132 16,743

In Sanskrit, placing an “a” in front of a word is used to denote the opposite of the root word. Ahimsa, which is taken to mean non-violence, could literally be translated as the opposite of violence. If you ask yourself what the opposite of violence is, I’d guess that it is highly unlikely that you would respond by saying non-violence. Non-violence is in fact the absence of violence but it is not the true opposite of violence. Let’s take another pair of Sanskrit words that appears in the Sutras to illustrate my point. Punya and apunya are presented as a pair of opposites used to denote virtue and malevolence, or good and evil. Apunya is rarely, if ever, translated as non-virtue yet it takes the same linguistic structure as ahimsa. So, rather than merely thinking of ahimsa as non-violence, I’d like to challenge you to change the paradigm of your concept of ahimsa. Pause for a moment and ask yourself what the opposite of violence is. The answer that comes to me is more like healing, peace or, without falling into the often over used cliche, love. Himsa is sometimes translated as “hate” and a very easy opposite to hate is love.
_
Once we redefine ahimsa as love, it actually changes the entire paradigm of yogic values, like ahimsa 2.0. Love is itself an action whose shape and form is not simple or easy to understand. But love is active, sometimes fierce, sharp, poignant, brave, courageous, strong, bold, defiant, and disruptive. And sometimes also peaceful, graceful, forgiving, quiet, patient and humble.
_
Read the full blog here:
https://www.kinoyoga.com/yogi-assignment-ahimsa-2-0/
Link also in bio.
_
Photo @sigismondiphotography behind the scenes filming for @omstarsofficial Yes we are filming a Global Yogi in Berlin.
_#practiceyogachangeyourworld#onebreathatatime

207 20,005

Sometimes there are no words. Sometimes there is only all the love in your heart.
_
Sometimes thank you isn’t enough, it’s like you just want to open up your heart and give a piece of yourself to express your gratitude.
_
Sometimes there is so much beauty in a simple moment that it catches you off guard and cracks your heart open. Let the tears come, let them roll off your cheeks like raindrops of the soul.
_
Sometimes it hits you, the raw vulnerability of every being, the basic yearning for love, the desire to be free from suffering, the emptiness of it all, the perfect balance between inhale and exhale, the sun, the moon, life and death.
_
Sometimes it’s all overwhelming and you just have to let it wash over you like a wave, and if you let yourself be carried by it you won’t drown, no, you’ll be lifted up.
_
Sometimes you get the sense that it’s not about you, that you play a part in a plan so big and grand that there’s no way you could have thought it all up.
_
Sometimes the sheer magnitude of it all, over generations and lifetimes, is both unbearable and exquisite all at the same time.
_
And sometimes you’re just here, with no filter, no mask, no pretending, just yourself and then you realize that is exactly who you were always meant to be.
_#practiceyogachangeyourworld#onebreathatatime#linie206
Photo @sigismondiphotography